Evidence of meeting #125 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was shelter.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
I have only a little over a minute left, so I would interrupt you there, if I could.
When we were doing a study on indigenous women in the justice system, we talked a lot about healing lodges. We heard that, often, when women are coming into a healing lodge, it's actually their first exposure to indigenous culture. They need to learn. They need to be exposed to culture. I'm wondering if you encounter that in the shelters as well.
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
We encounter that very much so in the shelters. I think the reason is that others have never offered it before. Awo Taan in Calgary is the first one that I'm aware of, at least in the province, that provides culturally responsive services. Yet, 60% of the women coming in are indigenous.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Viviane, do you offer indigenous culture within the shelters?
President, Quebec Native Women Inc.
Services vary depending on the shelter. Some provide more culture-based services such as having a tent out back. Our network of shelters for indigenous women has an added benefit: shelter workers speak the language spoken in the community, such as Innu or Naskapi. Consequently, victims of violence don't face a language barrier at the shelter.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
We're now going to move on to Rachael Harder for seven minutes.
The floor is yours.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you.
Starting with you, Ms. Nepinak, I'm just wondering if you can talk to me a little about what happens when the three weeks are up. It's my understanding that the women who come and stay in the shelter can be there only for three weeks, and then from there, something happens. When the three weeks have passed, what happens to those women? Where do they end up going?
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
I often believe that in three weeks we expect miracles to happen, which is not fair to the women and children who come in. Typically with indigenous families, the woman is in her mid-twenties. She usually has three children.
We require her to find housing, within the 21 days, and income support. If there are issues around child welfare or emergency protection orders, or just keeping her life intact in those three weeks.... Living in a communal type of facility, such as a shelter that has rules, is very difficult at times.
She could ask us for an extension. She may not have found housing. She may be waiting on an appointment with homeless supports or supports for income. We provide extensions, and we have provided extensions many times, which means there are fewer and fewer women coming into the shelter, because there are delays in other areas. Not all the systems work the way that we want them to, at times. We will keep her until she finds a place to go, has money for rent and that kind of thing.
Conservative
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
It's about 30 days. At times, we have had up to three months.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Those who move out after 30 days, or three months—it really doesn't matter—where do they go?
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
They go into public housing. Some go into second-stage housing, and we provide outreach and support to those women. Some go back to their home communities. It might be in a neighbouring Calgary community, such as Siksika Nation or Tsuut'ina Nation, or Stoney Nakoda. It depends on where they go. Some go back to the northern communities. There's a lot of loneliness and isolation.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
To what extent do these women return to their original home situation?
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
According to some of the research I recall from a couple of years ago, up to 45% of the women go back to their home situation. There are a number of reasons for that.
One is the lack of safe and affordable housing in Calgary, and the other one is the social networks they have in their community. That could be around language or just being with family and having that safety net. Although there continue to be variables around.... The home may not be safe, but is it better to be with family, and to find that security within family, than to find yourself in a dingy little basement apartment, isolated, in Calgary?
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Would you say, then, that there is a need for greater housing supports right across the continuum?
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
Absolutely. Second-stage housing, more wraparound services for women who are integrating back into the community if, let's say, they stay in Calgary....
If they should go back to their communities, what are the supports they need? There isn't a good communication process around that. If she's here in Calgary and goes back to Saddle Lake, for example, what does she need when she goes back? We don't have those mechanisms in place. We don't have the capacity to be able to do that follow-up when she leaves us.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
These women are coming out of dangerous situations. They've been mistreated. I'm sure there are often legal matters at hand, and perhaps charges that they would like to press. What types of supports are available for these women, should they wish to pursue that?
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
At Awo Taan, there aren't a lot of supports. We do not have court support workers on our staff, because we don't have the resources to do that.
Sometimes it's a hit-and-miss. Sometimes we will ask someone from another program to accompany her to the courthouse and explain the process to her. We don't have a dedicated.... Sometimes we miss on developing that program, where inconsistencies start to pop up and we're not doing her a great service.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Viviane, do you have anything you wish to add? Perhaps you could reflect on where women tend to go after they stay in the shelter for a period of time.
It was stated that 45% of the women are going back to their original situation. Would you say that you have that same observation within your centre?
President, Quebec Native Women Inc.
When women come to the shelter, they are very vulnerable. They have suffered a loss of control, so when they come to us, we give them time to catch their breath. They are exhausted, emotionally and psychologically. Later, when they meet with shelter workers, a care plan is developed.
The length of the stay varies from one shelter to another. Some shelters can accommodate women for up to six months, provided that they stick to their care plan, which can include one-on-one meetings, legal steps or sessions with experts. Shelter workers aren't psychologists, so a psychologist may also be brought into the process. Social workers may be involved as well, since shelter referrals can come from them. All of those efforts continue during the client's stay at the shelter.
Most of the time, the women do, indeed, go back home. You have to understand, though, that they love their husbands, just not their violent behaviour. What's more, victims of violence are gripped with fear, always worried about leaving forever. They become fearful and highly dependent on the abuser.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you very much, Viviane.
We're now going to move over to Sheila Malcolmson for seven minutes.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to both of the witnesses for their work.
Can you both give me a snapshot of the gap between the demand for the safety services that you offer and your ability to provide them? How many women who ask for help are being turned away?
Executive Director, Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society
I can answer that question first.
On average, each year, we field approximately 2,500 crisis calls. We provided shelter to 250 women and 275 children last year. Our turn-aways are about 1,200 women and children per year.
Where do these women go? We do referrals to other shelters in the city of Calgary. There are two other emergency shelters.
What we're finding is that some indigenous women are not comfortable with going to mainstream shelters. Here's the reason why: Often there's a lack of understanding. That's primarily around cultural understanding. There may be no brown faces in the shelter. There may be no one who speaks their language or has a common history or experience. There may be someone who just doesn't get it. It's impacted by racism. The woman is not necessarily comfortable.
Therefore, we have found that women will actually wait until they can come into our indigenous shelter, which puts them in a further vulnerable situation.
Thank you.
NDP
President, Quebec Native Women Inc.
The demand for our services is twofold. On the one hand, we have women looking for shelter services, and on the other hand, we have those who just want someone to listen, a service we can also provide by phone. Sometimes, they are former residents of the shelter who just need someone to talk to. We provide those two kinds of services, then.
We don't turn anyone looking for help away. When women call us, we assist them and they go through the process. The call for help really has to come from the victim, herself. It can't be someone calling for her. If the shelter is full, we refer the victim to a non-indigenous shelter in the area. Finding one usually isn't a problem.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you.
Just two years ago now, in November 2016, we had the United Nations committee to end discrimination against women. One of its observations was that the committee “remains concerned about the lack of a coherent plan or strategy to improve the socioeconomic conditions of indigenous communities, in particular indigenous women to combat the root cause of their vulnerability to violence”.
In her report on Canada in April of this year, the United Nations special rapporteur to end violence against women observed that there should be an action plan that “should be indigenous led and supported by adequate resources, in particular ensuring the provision of a sufficient number of housing units, transitional houses and shelters, especially needed by Indigenous communities, that should be run by them and used [as a hub] for other services needed for recovery and empowerment, in line with the human rights based approach.” A national action plan “should also address specific challenges and provide more services for indigenous women in remote areas where victims face difficulties in accessing services.”
Have you seen action on either of those recommendations in a way that's changed the operations of your group and the lives of the women you serve?